


Fireflies and Skateboards Carved Out Of Wood.

by lilies_in_a_vase



Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: Abusive Neil Hargrove, BAMF Maxine “Max” Mayfield, Billy Hargrove & Maxine "Max" Mayfield Bonding, Billy Hargrove Needs a Hug, Billy Hargrove Tries to Be a Better Sibling, Blood and Injury, Broken Bones, But it’s not someone we like, Camping, Character Death, Gen, Good Sibling Maxine "Max" Mayfield, Hurt Billy Hargrove, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Infection, Maxine "Max" Mayfield Needs a Hug, Neil Hargrove's A+ Parenting, Protective Maxine "Max" Mayfield, Sibling Bonding, Stargazing, Survival, demodogs
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-16
Updated: 2020-12-16
Packaged: 2021-03-10 19:13:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 9,314
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28112202
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lilies_in_a_vase/pseuds/lilies_in_a_vase
Summary: Neil takes the Hargrove-Mayfield family camping, but when tragedy strikes, and with Billy hurt, Max ends up having to do her best for her and her stepbrother’s continuous survival.
Relationships: Billy Hargrove & Maxine "Max" Mayfield, Neil Hargrove/Susan Hargrove
Comments: 4
Kudos: 70





	Fireflies and Skateboards Carved Out Of Wood.

**Author's Note:**

> TRIGGER WARNING:   
> Character death, reference to child abuse. Max and Billy end up in a situation where they’re alone and have to fend for themselves. 
> 
> Please tell me if I should change the rating! 
> 
> Happy Reading!

Neil is taking them camping. Her mum wanted them to do something together, to bond a little as a family, and Neil suggested -  _ decided  _ \- that they would go camping during Easter Break. He’d told them at dinner, and under his breath Max had heard Billy mutter: “It’s fucking cold.” Neil had hit the table with his fist and made them all jump. “You’ll just have to wear layers, then!” Which, admittedly, is hilarious, because for all the years Max has known Billy, he has never been one for wearing layers. 

Had it been last year, when Max was younger and more naive and ignorant to the dangers of the world, and of the forests surrounding Hawkins in particular, then maybe she might have even looked forward to it. After all, Max likes being outside. 

But now? Now, she knows she’s going to spend the entire week on high alert even though she knows El closed the Gate. She’s going to jump as soon as she hears something move in the bushes, and Billy might have gotten better since That Night, but that doesn’t mean that he’s not going to laugh at her about it. Even though Max has good reason to be afraid.

Neil hands each of them a backpack and tells them to pack down whatever shit they want to bring to entertain themselves. Max tells the party she’s going and Will brings her Christmas lights working on batteries, and Mike tells her to make sure she’s got her walkie with her, and Lucas, El and Dustin all hand her different sized kitchen knifes, and Steve insists on her taking his bat. So Max puts it all into several layers of plastic bags and hides it underneath her Walkman and comics just in case her mum decides to look through her backpack for something. 

In the end, although she’s still dreading the coming week, she feels more comfortable that in case something  does go wrong, Max will be prepared. 

She can’t sleep the night before the trip. She lays awake, tossing and turning, and those few hours she actually manages to get anywhere near dreamland, she wakes up with a gasp and the vague memory of the tunnels in the back of her mind. 

Her mum makes them blueberry pancakes for breakfast. And packs sandwiches for lunch and dinner. All in all, it doesn’t start off bad. They all pile into Neil’s car, Max and Billy in the backseat, the radio on and Susan and Neil alternating between talking about how nice it’s going to be, and how fun they’re going to have, and asking Max about how it’s going in school. Billy sits silent beside her, headphones on and fingers drumming on his knee. 

Neil’s hired a campsite for them, with logs around an already prepared campfire that they only have to light to be able to bbq the sausages they brought for dinner. Susan and Max end up in charge of watching the fire with instructions to let Neil know once it’s reached the point he can start the bbq. Meanwhile, Neil makes Billy help him set up the tents. They only have two, so Max is going to have to share with Billy. It reminds her of the motels they stayed in on their way from California to Hawkins, except that then they weren’t sleeping in sleeping bags just a few feet apart. 

After dinner, her mum says they should probably all go to bed soon, so they can ‘get an early start to the day’. Max has been yawning since she got up this morning, so she doesn’t protest. Billy goes to change in their tent, so Max goes over to her mum and Neil’s tent. Billy doesn’t say anything when she steps into the tent. He’s already lying down in his sleeping bag, and his eyes are closed, but Max knows he isn’t sleeping. His breathing hasn’t evened out yet. 

Max thinks that perhaps now would be a good time to try talking to him. They haven’t really spoken since the morning after That Night, as she’s come to refer to it in her mind. Billy had driven her to school with sunglasses on his stupid face, and Max had demanded he apologise to both her friends and Steve. She’d made him to it that morning, right there outside the middle school, and had radioed Steve to make sure he apologised to him as well. And Billy had, and since then they’d assumed a strange sort of truce. Which mostly sums up to ignoring each other as much as possible. 

In the end, Max turns her back to him, and goes to sleep. 

—

For all that her mum wanted them to have an early start to the day, none of them wake up before noon. 

Once they do wake up though, and eat hotdogs for breakfast, then Neil points out a barely visible path and tells them they’re going hiking. 

Max grabs her backpack and trudges along. It’s somehow both incredibly boring, and nerve wracking. Max has always liked nature, but nowadays, she  _ really _ hates the woods. 

They stop to snack on sandwiches, and then continue on. Neil has them walking all day, so that by the time they’re back at their campsite Max is utterly exhausted. Her stomach rumbles, and she sits at a log by the fire and breathes in the heavenly smell of food cooking. Billy’s sat down at another log, and he’s got a small knife in hand, and seems to be carving a piece of wood into something. Maybe a stake, so he can stab someone. Or himself. If Max is bored, then she can’t imagine what Billy must feel like. He doesn’t even have any existential panic to distract him.

After dinner, Max changes into sweats and a shirt, and falls asleep almost as soon as she lays down. 

—

It’s still dark when she wakes up. 

At first, Max isn’t certain what woke her up, so she lays still and listens. 

And then she hears her mum giggle, and Neil chuckles, and her mum is moaning and it ends up really high pitched and Max can feel her cheeks heat up as she’s grabbing her pillows and pulling it over her head and pressing it into her ears. 

She stays like that for a while, and eventually her eyes start to adjust to the darkness. She can just make out the outline of Billy’s sleeping silhouette on the other end of the tent. He’s sleeping on his side, back turned towards her. 

Then suddenly his whole body jerks, and he turns around to lie on his back. And suddenly Max hears a sound, much closer than the sounds she’s trying to avoid hearing. It sounds a bit like a whine, and Max sees Billy’s face screw up, as though something’s hurting him. He’s breathing hard. 

Max shoots her leg out and kicks him in his shin. 

Billy startles awake. 

“What...?” he mumbles, blinks and looks around blearily. He props himself up on one arm and looks at her, frowning. “Max? What the fuck are you-“ Then his eyes widen, and Max guesses he must’ve heard their parents. 

“Oh fuck no,” he says, and stands up. He reaches for the picnic blanket they’ve got rolled up against the wall by their feet, and zips the tent open. He’s halfway out before he turns around and looks back at her. “You coming, shitbird?” 

Max’s eyes widen, and she scrambles up to go after him. She zips the tent closed behind them. 

They’re quiet as they hurry away from their campsite, Max sending a disgusted look back at her mum’s and Neil’s tent. Billy leads her away, close enough that they can still see Neil’s car between the trees but far enough that they can’t hear them anymore. 

He spreads the blanket out in the grass, and lies down, on his back with his head pillowed on one arm. Max hesitates for a second, before sitting down at the edge. Billy looks at her with raised eyebrows before scoffing and grabbing her arm. His grip’s tight, not enough to bruise but hard enough Max can’t get out of it without turning it into a fight. 

He lets go as soon as she’s lying down though, and laughs quietly. Max is about to shout at him, to elbow his side or punch his arm, when he points up at the sky and she turns her gaze to follow. 

She can’t help letting out a little gasp of wonder. The night sky spreads out above them, infinite. Max doesn’t think she’s ever seen so many stars before. 

“My mum used to tell me stories about the stars,” Billy speaks quietly. “Did you know they’re all named after Greek myths?” 

Max shrugs. She thinks she’s heard, sometime, but has never cared enough to pay attention. She’s interested now, though, because Billy mentioned his mother, and he never speaks about her. 

“You know the Big Dipper?” he asks, and Max nods. She knows that much, at least. She can even point it out among the stars above them. “It’s actually part of Ursa Major. In Greek myths, there was this princess. She was one of the Hunters of Artemis, the Goddess of the Hunt, and she was in love with her.” 

For a second, Max doesn’t even dare breathe. She worries he’s expecting a reaction from her, but Billy just continues. 

“And Zeus, the King of the Gods and Artemis father, found her incredibly beautiful. So he turned himself into a lookalike of his daughter, and seduced the princess. She fell pregnant, and when it was found out, she became expelled from the Hunt, because Artemis wanted them all to stay virgins. Zeus jealous wife, Hera, found out about the princess, and after she had her son, she turned her into a bear. The son grew up to become a hunter, and almost killed his mother when they met one day in the woods. So Zeus turned him into a bear as well, and put them both into the sky to keep them safe. Ursa Major and Ursa Minor. The Big and the Little Dipper.” 

Billy’s a good storyteller. Max never would have guessed. 

“I hate Zeus,” she mutters.

Billy chuckles beside her, and Max is ready to get angry, but then he says: “Me too, shitbird. Me too.” 

He falls silent after that, like he’s a waiting for something. But then he grabs her hand again, and pushes something into it. 

“Here.” 

In the light from the moon, she can see it’s a little skateboard, carved out of wood. Max thinks back to seeing him carving something back before dinner, and realises with a start that this must be it. He’d made it himself, to give to her. 

She’s speechless for a minute or two. 

Max is just about to thank him, when Billy points out another star and starts telling her its story. She feels something she never thought she’d feel with Billy; safe.

—

When Max wakes up the next morning, she’s back in the tent. Billy’s not asleep next to her, but she can hear movement from outside the tent. 

She thinks it must’ve been a dream, Billy showing her the constellations. Then she feels something prick her hand, and looks down. She’s still holding the tiny skateboard, and she’s just pricked her finger on a loose little piece of wood chip. 

She smiles when she looks at it. In the morning light, she can see he even carved out tiny little wheels, although they look a little more rectangular than round. Max sits up and puts it in her backpack. 

Billy shoots her a small smile when she steps out, and it suddenly hits her that she must have fallen asleep and he must have carried her back. She answers it with a small smile of her own. He’s going through their back with cutlery; plastic plates and plastic knives and forks and plastic mugs. 

Her mum gets out the bread and cheese and ham, and they eat sandwiches for breakfast. 

Afterwards, Neil drags Billy away in one direction of the forest, telling him he’s going to teach him to chop wood like a real man, and her mum puts a hand on her shoulder and steers her in the opposite direction. 

“You and Billy seem to be getting along better?” Susan says, and smiles at Max, who realises she must’ve seen them exchanging smiles before breakfast. 

Max shrugs. “I guess.” 

“I’m happy.” 

“Yeah. So am I.” 

Her mum has her picking berries and looking at flowers and birds all day, pointing them out in a little book she’s brought with her. Both Billy and Neil are sweaty when they meet up again for dinner, and Neil grills them hamburgers. 

Before going to bed, Mx grabs two water bottles and stuffs them in her backpack. Call her paranoid, but she’s got a bad feeling. 

—

“Max. Max.” 

She blinks to find Billy hovering over her, shaking her shoulder. It’s still night, and Max can just make out his expression in the dark. She thinks he looks afraid. 

“What’s going on?”

Billy glances over his shoulder, towards the closed opening of the tent, and for some reason it makes a chill go through Max. “I think there’s something out there. Like, an animal, or something. I could hear it, before.” 

_ ‘A demodog?!’ _ Max immediately thinks, but she can’t very well say that. He’s whispering, so Max matches his volume. “You think it’s a bear?” she asks, not even knowing if Indiana has bears. 

Billy shakes his head. “No, not that big, I don’t think. I don’t know. I just- I don’t- Should we go wake dad and Susan?”

Max sits up. “Is it still here?” 

“I think it left.” 

“Okay. Maybe...” She starts moving her sleeping bag and pillow and blanket closer towards the middle of the tent, where Billy sits. “Let’s stay here, and keep away from the walls, and... yeah.” 

She lies down again, and a second later Billy follows suit. They lying in opposite directions, their shoulders almost touching. 

Max stays awake, listening, and she guesses Billy does the same, because his breathing doesn’t even out. A long while later, when Max is almost about to fall asleep, he sits up and pulls himself up to standing. He reaches out to unzip the tent. 

“Billy?” 

“I gotta piss.” 

She groans. “Can’t you just hold it? I don’t think-“

He turns around and shoots her a glare. “Max. It’s been like an hour. It’s fine. Whatever I heard left.” 

She swallows. “I’ve got a bad feeling.” 

Billy rolls his eyes. “Oh, well in that case!”

She reaches out and hits him with his own pillow. “Fuck you! Go, then, you fucking asshole!”

Something seems to soften in his gaze, and he worries at his lip. “Listen, Maxine, I’ll be gone for like five minutes, tops. I promise.” 

Max grumbles, but doesn’t say anything else. He pulls on his boots, grabs his backpack, in which Susan made them shove done a toilet roll each, and goes out into the night. 

The breeze makes the tent opening flap, and it’s cool against her face. And Max, barely awake, let’s herself drift off a little. 

She startles awake at the sound of screaming. Billy’s screaming. 

Max is off like a rocket, grabbing her backpack and rushing out of the tent. She’s glad she’s slept in her shoes, now. 

Her eyes land on Neil’s axe, resting against one of the logs, and she grabs it on her way towards where she can still hear Billy. She doesn’t have time to dig out the bat. 

Billy’s on the ground, his backpack a few feet from him, and a demodog sitting atop his chest, its petal jaws unfurled towards his head. He’s barely keeping it from biting his face off. 

Max swings. She holds the axe in both hands, and swings it towards the demodog’s middle, and amazingly it’s thrown away, hitting a tree. She doesn’t give it time to get back up, instead rushing towards it and hacking straight into its mouth. It lets out a sound between a yowl and growl, and tries to stand up. Max hacks at its legs. 

She looses track of herself, only coming back once she realises that it’s form is still and silent. 

“M-Max?” 

She turns around, finds Billy staring at her with wide eyes. He’s stood up, his backpack now swung up on one shoulder. He looks like he can’t really believe what he’s seeing. 

Max is breathing hard, and she almost doesn’t hear it. Then it comes again, slightly closer.  _Where there is one demodog, there will be more._

She doesn’t speak, just rushes up to take Billy’s hand in hers, and starts dragging him deeper into the forest, away from camp, away from her mum. If they’re following them, Max has no interest in leading them back to her. 

“ _ Run! _ ” she screams at Billy, and he picks up pace. 

They run, and run, and run, Max blindly leading them past the trees and bushes and over the roots and stones, until suddenly the ground disappears from under her. Billy’s running too quickly to stop, his hand still in Max’, and she feels him slip and fall after her.

He turns her around in the air and curls his body around hers, her face pressed against his chest. 

They land on their sides, Billy hitting the ground first. Max hears something crack upon impact, and Billy’s hold on her grows stronger. She can feel his jaw tense where it’s leaning on top of her head. 

Max doesn’t try to get up, instead turning her head to glance around them as much as she can. It seems like they’ve ended up in a cave of some sort, a hole in the ceiling above them, big enough for two teenagers to fall through, letting the moonlight in. 

She tries to pull herself up and away from Billy, but he lets out a whimper as she presses her back at his arms. 

“Billy?” 

“I think my arm’s broken,” he whispers, and Max both hears and feels him swallow. “And it got me. That thing, it- What the fuck was that thing?!”

“It- It’s a- Wait, what do you mean it ‘got’ you? Billy?” She pushes herself up again, and rolls off him when he lets go of her. She sits up and turns to stare at him. He’s still lying on the ground, breathing hard. 

And there’s blood trailing down from his left bicep. 

Max turns around, grabs her backpack and fishes around for her flashlight. She turns it on and shines it at Billy, who flinches and pulls his right arm up to cover his eyes. 

“Fuck-! Get that out of my face-“ 

“Shut up,” Max says, and amazingly, he falls silent. He lowers his arm and blinks a couple times before following her gaze down to his arm. 

“Shit.”

“Yeah,” Max agrees. “Yeah.” 

His upper arm’s a bloody mess, and she can’t see how big the wound is. Can’t tell if it’s a bite mark or a scratch. The demodogs will smell it, and they’re going to find them. She glances around them. The cave extends into darkness on both ends. She turns back to her backpack and gets out one of her water bottles. Without warning, she pours water over his arm. 

Billy hisses and tries to back away, but Max grabs his wrist to keep him in place. She lets go when he cries out, and remembers hearing the crunch of bones when they hit the ground. _‘I think my arm’s broken.’_

“I’ve got a first aid kit in my bag,” Billy says between clenched teeth. 

Max breathes a sigh of relief, because in all her cautiousness, she’d forgotten to get one. But then, as she’s grabbing Billy’s backpack and pulling it off his shoulder, thankfully the one of the other arm, she can’t help but wonder.

“Why do you have a first aid kit?” she asks as she rummages around his bag for it. 

“None of your business,” Billy snaps back and Max rolls her eyes. 

She beams when she finds it, and her smile widens when she realises it’s a pretty well equipped kit as well. At least, it’s got lots of bandages and gauze. 

“Okay, sit up.” 

He pushes himself up with his right arm and turns so she has easier access to the other one. Max gets out a roll and wraps it a couple times around his wound, hoping it’ll be enough until they manage to get real help. She fishes out one of his shirts from his backpack and manages to make a makeshift sling with it and the bandages. 

“Think I’ll be okay?” Billy asks, and Max shoots a quick look at his expression. He’s smiling a little crookedly, and it sounds like he’s trying to make a joke. Max smiles a little, despite herself. 

“Yeah. Good as new.” 

“You going to tell me what the fuck that was, now?” 

Max grimaces. “Billy-“ 

“I saw you hack it up with Neil’s fucking axe, Max. And I’m not a fucking biologist, but even I know that shit wasn’t a normal animal.” 

She looks away, and turns of her flashlight. 

“It tried to  eat me, Max.” His voice sounds small, smaller than Max has ever heard it. 

She sighs. “I’ll tell you tomorrow. I promise.” She stands up, and grabs her backpack, walking closer to the hole so she’s standing in the middle below it. 

“Where you going?” 

“Going to see if I can call for help.” She finds her walkie underneath the clothes she’d taken with her, beside the plastic bag with the bat, and takes it out. 

She calls out for the party, spends probably five minutes doing so, but all that answers her is static. She stuffs it back into the bag with a huff, and turns around to find Billy watching her. 

He’s moved so he’s sitting against the opposite wall, his backpack in his lap, and Neil’s axe beside him. Max goes over and sits down beside him. It’s cold in the cave, and Max wishes she knew how to start a fire. Not that she has anything to start one with, even if she knew how. 

She glances at Billy and wonders if he’d push her away if she moved closer. She doesn’t dare to, so she stays where she is, silent and still. 

“The kit,” Billy says, and it sounds like he can’t really understand why he’d just opened his mouth. But it’s too late, because he’s got her attention now, and Max thinks he probably knows her well enough by now that he knows she won’t let it go. 

She pulls her knees up to her chest, and wraps her arms around them. 

“I took it with me, in case my dad...” he trails of, and Max gets the feeling he’s not about to continue. Like he expects her to understand. 

“In case he what?” she asks, because she doesn’t understand. 

Billy huffs, and Max can tell he’s growing frustrated. It might’ve scared her, before. “You know. Out here, away from society. Too far away to get help, nowhere for me to run. No one to stop him.” 

“Stop him from what?” Max asks, although she thinks she might be starting to get it, if the way it feels like the grounds about to go out from under her is any indication. 

Billy sighs, and when he speaks, he sounds exhausted. “There’s no one to stop him from beating me, shitbird.” 

“I would’ve,” Max says, immediately. 

Billy laughs lowly. “Like you could do anything.” He snorts. “Besides, it’s not like you’ve ever tried before.” 

Max ignores the sting in her eyes, and the way she kind of wants to starts shouting at him. Instead, she asks a different question: “How long...?” 

“Before you and your mum.” He shakes his head, suddenly seeming angry with himself. “Forget about it. It’s not important. I don’t know why I told you.” 

_A secret for a secret._

“I’ll tell you about the demodogs tomorrow.” 

Billy chuckles. “That’s what you call them?” 

“Tomorrow.” 

“Alright. Go back to sleep. I’ll take first watch.”

Max wants to protest, but she’s been running on adrenaline and can feel herself crashing. She lies down and feels her eyes shut as soon as her head hits her backpack. 

—

There’s daylight shining in through the hole when Max opens her eyes. She lifts her hands to rub her eyes, and gasps when she sees them. There’s dried blood all over them, and a glance down at her clothes tell her they’re in a similar state. The demodog’s dark blood, and a little bit of Billy’s, brighter. 

“You okay?” Billy asks, and Max looks up. He’s glancing down at her, frowning. 

“The... the blood.” 

He nods. “Yeah. Might want to wash that off, before we go back.” 

She sits up, and grabs her backpack, taking out the water bottle she’d used to clean Billy’s wound and pouring the rest of its contents out over her hands. Her shirt and pants are a lost cause. 

She’s got one other bottle with her, and she takes it out and drinks some, before handing it to Billy. He mutters a thanks and grabs it. 

“‘Go back’?” Max asks. 

He swallows, and tries to screw the bottle closed. It’s hard one handed, and Max takes pity on him and grabs it back. Billy scowls. “Yeah. What, you were thinking we’d just sit here and wait for rescue? We have no food, barely any water left, and don’t you want to check on your mum?” He doesn’t say anything about his arm, but now, in the daylight, Max can clearly see the lines of pain marring his face. 

“Yeah. Of course. I just-“  _ I’m scared of what we’ll find. _ She shakes her head, and gestures around them, at the way the cave extends in both directions. “Which way?” 

“Left? That’s the direction towards camp, at least.” 

“Okay.”

They get up, and Max takes out the flashlight, and then the bat, from her backpack. The nails have made holes in the plastic bag she’d hidden it in. She sees Billy’s eyes widen when his eyes land on it, and can’t help a little smirk when he takes a involuntary step back. 

She zips her backpack shut, and gestures for him to grab the axe. Together, swinging their weapons and Max shining the flashlight in front of them, they make their way through the cave. 

She expects Billy’s about to start prodding her for answers, so she speaks before he can. 

Max takes a deep breath. “Okay. So. There’s an alternate dimension, and we call it the Upside Down.” 

“You telling me about one of your games?” 

“No. Shut up. Listen, this is important. The Upside Down’s got these... monsters, and last year, some scientists opened up a portal into it. Shit went down, and then this year, it opened up again, and a bunch of demodogs crawled out. They had a tunnel system running under Hawkins. That day, after Halloween, when you came to get me, we were busy dealing with it. We closed the Gate again, and burned the tunnels. But I guess some escaped, or they were too far away when it happened, so they didn’t die.” 

“Who’s ‘we’? Just you and the rest of the little shits?” Max is surprised by how well he seems to be taking it. She figures almost getting killed by one of the things might make it more believable, though. 

“Me, my  _ friends _ , Ms. Byers and Hopper, Nancy, Jonathan, and Steve.” 

“ _ Chief _ Hopper?”

“Yeah. He’s- He’s the dad, of one of my friends. Jane.” 

“I didn’t know you had any female friends here.”

“Well I do,” Max huffs. A stray strand of hair falls into her face, and she blows it away. She’s going to shower for an hour when they get back home. 

“So let me gets this right,” Billy says, and Max knows she won’t like what he’s about to say. “You and the rest of the kids, two parents, and all older siblings plus Harrington, were all in on this? And that’s what you were doing when I came to get you? Why the fuck wasn’t I let in on this shit?”

Anger bubbles up in her. “Because you’re a fucking asshole, Billy! You attacked my friends when I wouldn’t go home with you!” 

“Yeah, well if you didn’t sneak the fuck out and payed more attention to what goes on around you then perhaps I wouldn’t have had to!” 

“Nobody made you-!” 

“ _ Neil made me!  _ You think he’d been happy if I’d gone home and told him I found you at a house filled with boys and creepy drawings? One boy who’s older than me, by the way, and who isn’t anyone’s older brother so shouldn’t really have had any business being there in the first place? You think he’d be satisfied with the slap he already gave me?” 

The anger fizzles out. “You can’t be angry with me for that. I didn’t know.  You didn’t tell me. You didn’t tell anyone.”

She can hear Billy grumble under his breath, but he doesn’t say anything else. They walk the rest of the way in silence, until eventually, a Max sees light shining through, past the reach of her flashlight. 

She takes up running, and laughs when she comes out on the other end to see trees and a small hill. The sun’s hiding behind a group of clouds, but it’s lighter than it been back in the cave, at least. 

Billy comes out a few seconds later, and Max gestures towards the grassy hill. “I think camp’s that way,” she says. “Because the ground was pretty even where we ran, so it should be-“ 

Billy waves the hand holding the axe around. Max wants to shout at him to be careful. “Yeah, yeah, I agree. Lead the way, shitbird.” 

Max tries you remember the way they’d ran the night before, and wishes she’d brought a compass. 

Eventually though, she sees the fabric of their tent through the trees, and turns to beam at Billy. He smiles back at her, lets out a little laugh. 

“Billy!” Neil steps out between the trees, a shotgun in one hand. 

“Where the hell have you two been?!” he barks. “You’re mother was worried sick, she drove back to Hawkins to get a search party together, and I found a fucking animal hacked to death just a little bit away from here!” His eyes seem to register the axe in Billy’s hand, the bat in Max’, the blood on her clothes and the sling Billy’s arm rest in. “What the fuck did you two-“ His eyes widen, and he raises the gun. 

Max turns to follow his gaze, and behind them, to the side under the shade of a tree, stands a demodog. 

“Max, Billy! Get away from it!” 

Max grabs Billy’s arm, and drags him back a couple steps. 

Neil shoots. Once, and it only makes the demodog growl. Twice, three times, and Max sees it ready itself to spring. 

“What on God’s sweet earth-?!” Neil bellows, and readies himself to shoot it again. 

He doesn’t get that far. He raises the gun again, and the demodog jumps. It runs towards him, and a strangled scream is wrenched from Max as it knocks him to the ground to stand on his chest. She sees its petal mouth open, and hears Neil scream as hundreds of teeth come down to bite into his chest. 

She turns around, and starts running, still holding onto Billy’s arm. 

But Billy doesn’t move, and Max stumbles. She tries to block out Neil’s screams as she turns back to look at Billy, who stands frozen, staring at his dad’s convulsing form. Max reaches up and slaps him, and he gasps, moving his head to stare down at her with wet eyes. His whole body’s trembling. 

“We have to go,” Max says, quieter than she’d hoped, and begs him to understand.

And Billy sucks in another sharp breath, and nods. Max takes his hand in hers again, and drags him away. 

They run back the way they’d came, and Max sees more than feels it start raining as they go. 

Billy crashes to the ground once they get back to the part of the cave they’d fallen into the previous night, and Max hears him start heaving and vomit. 

The stench fills the small space, and Max is glad for the hole in the ceiling. 

She can’t really process what just happened. Neil’s dead. Her step-father. Billy’s  _ dad _ . 

She doesn’t know how to feel. Horrified, yes. Pitying, probably. Sad? Not yet, at least. She never loved Neil. She felt indifferent to him, most of the time. 

She’s brought out of her musings when she hears Billy’s breaths turn into wheezing.

She grabs his shoulder and makes him turn around so she doesn’t have to sit down in the mess on the ground. She takes a seat in front of him, and tries to get him to look at her. He’s staring unseeingly, his chest heaving with each breath. 

Max doesn’t know what to do. She reaches out, takes his hand in hers and gives it a squeeze. “Come on, Billy,” she sniffles, and realises she’s crying. “Breathe. Please.” 

His eyes seem to focus back on her, and he gives her hand a weak squeeze back. His eyes close, and Max doesn’t move as she waits for his breathing to get back to normal. 

“You okay?” she asks when he opens his eyes. Max thinks he tries to stop himself, but he lets out a sob, and his eyes overflow with tears. 

“My dad’s dead.” 

Max swallows. “Yeah.” There’s no way he’d survived it. 

Billy lets out a shaky breath. “He tried to save us. I didn’t- I never thought he’d- I didn’t think he loved me enough.” 

Max mouth falls open. She thinks about what Billy told her, about himself and Neil, and realises she has nothing to say. There’s nothing she  _ can _ say. 

“What the fuck, Max?” Billy whispers, and reaches up with his right hand to try to wipe the tears away. It’s no use; they’re only followed by more. “Why the fuck am I crying?”

She thinks that last one is directed towards himself, but she still shrugs, helplessly. 

Billy stumbles as he pulls himself to standing, his hand still holding on to hers so she has to follow along. He leads them the few steps over to the wall they’d stayed against last night, and sits down, pulling her down beside him. He lets go of her hand and instead puts his arm around her back, pulling her against his side and holding her close. 

Max gasps when it clicks that he’s trying to  _ hug _ her. Billy’s  _afraid_. 

She wraps both arms around his chest, trying not to jostle his injured arm, and lets him. 

—

A little while later, when Billy’s relaxed his hold and stopped shaking, Max stands up and grabs the axe. She hands it to him, and takes the bat for herself, telling him she’s going to try calling the Party again.

She shines the flashlight through the cave, back to the opening they found earlier, and doesn’t walk further than the mouth of the cave. She takes her walkie out and shouts for the others, but all that greets her is more static. 

—

Max takes the first watch that night. Billy’s been awake longer than she has, and she’s coiled too tightly to sleep. Her stomach rumbles. She hasn’t eaten anything since dinner the day before. 

Billy curls up against the cave wall, his head pillowed on his backpack, the way Max had last night. 

She sits down by the opposite wall, closer to the hole, and stares out through it, Steve’s bat resting in her lap. It’s stopped raining, and she looks out at the stars, trying to find the constellations Billy’d pointed out to her. 

There was an evening, once, back in California after Neil had married her mum when there’d been a fair, right by the beach. Neil had dropped her and Billy off, and gone out on a date with her mum. And Max remembers running in between the stands with Billy, out towards the sand. They’d taken their shoes off, and had walked along the shoreline, the water lapping at their feet. Then they’d gone back, and Billy had won her prices, and bought her snacks, and laughed with her as they went on carousels together. If she concentrates, she can still taste the sweet stickiness of cotton candy on her lips. 

A sudden sound brings her out of the memory, and she grabs the bat in a tight grip, straining her ears to listen. She’s expecting the sound of paws running, or growling, but what she gets instead is a soft moan followed by a whimper. 

Her gaze shoots to Billy, and Max stands up, grabbing her flashlight and walking over to him. She kneels down by his head, and turns the light on to shine it in his face. 

It’s screwed up in pain, a light sheen of sweat on his skin, and Max can see him shivering. She places her hand on his brow, and gasps at the heat. She turns the flashlight to shine on his arm, and sees he’s bled through the gauze. 

Max unwraps it, and pulls it away from his skin. The wound underneath is gruesome, yellow pus starting to ooze from it, the skin red and hot to the touch. Billy flinches when she presses at it, but doesn’t wake. Max feels ill. And a little panicked. 

She reaches further up, and shakes his shoulder. “Billy? Billy, wake up. Wake up!” All it does is make his head loll. Max lets out a sob, and feels warm tears trail down her cheeks. 

She reaches for her backpack, takes out her last water bottle before zipping it closed again, and holds Billy’s head up as she exchanges his for hers. She digs around for his first aid kit, and, having found it, gets out a bunch of gauze. 

Billy’s sleeping on his side, and Max takes his arm and gently moves it out of its sling. She turns around so she sits with her back pressed against his chest, so he ends up sandwiched between herself and the wall. She unscrews the bottle and holds his arm up while she pours a little bit of the water over the wound. She glances at him as he whimpers, but he’s still sleeping. 

She lowers his arm to her lap, and takes out a bunch of gauze. She doesn’t really know what she’s doing as she presses it against the wound and starts rubbing, trying to clean it, but predictably, Billy’s whole body jerks and he tries to pull away. There’s nowhere for him to go, though, Max’ made sure of it. 

Her visions getting blurry, and she thinks that had he been awake, he’d probably been screaming. Max feels horrible about it, but she wishes the pain at least would make him wake up. 

She throws the balled up gauze away from her, and blinks until her vision clears somewhat. She reaches for a fresh role of bandages, and wraps it around his arm. His shivering’s increased by the time she turns around and puts it back in his sling. 

Max reaches back into his backpack and gets out two more shirts, putting one of the floor by him and the other one she drapes over his upper body. 

As she’s turning back to get out another piece of gauze, Max’ breath catches at the sight in front of her. 

There are fireflies, dancing and playing in the air by the hole, some inside the cave and some outside. 

“Look! Billy, Billy, wake up! Look, fireflies!” she shakes him again, as if childlike wonder’s making her believe that the notion of seeing the glowing insects will make him react. 

They don’t, of course they don’t, and Max sighs before reaching out for the bottle again. She unscrews it, and presses the gauze against the opening. She turns the bottle upside down, and lets some of the water run out before righting it. She places the damp gauze on Billy’s forehead, and lies down beside him. At least his fever’s turning him into a furnace that helps her warm up. 

She looks out at the fireflies, lets a few more years fall. If Max believed in signs, she hopes this one is as hopeful as it feels. 

— 

Max figures signs don’t exist, because Billy’s worse in the morning. There are tremors going through him, at times almost violent, and he’s so warm he’s made Max sweat from just lying beside him. 

She hadn’t meant to fall asleep, but at least she doesn’t think she’d slept for more than two hours, tops. 

She peels the bandage away, and feels panic set in as she sees black tendrils going beneath his skin, moving away from the wound. 

She shakes him again, and slaps his cheek when that doesn’t help, but he still doesn’t wake. Max feels like screaming. 

Instead, she drags his body until he’s lying on his back, and moves her backpack away from under his head to take its place. She forces a little bit of water down his throat. In the morning light and with his head in her lap, she can see his hair’s filled with dirt and grass and leaves and twigs, and Max knows Billy would’ve hated it had he been awake to notice. She gets to work taking it out from the tangles in his curls, and thinks she’s at least helping him a little, because the grimace his face has been resting in eases a little, and he starts to relax. 

Max knows she needs to get help, but she doesn’t want to leave Billy alone when he can’t defend himself. She wants to call Hop, but she needs better signal, and she should go back to the campsite to get more water because they’re running out and she has to ransom it between the two of them. But she doesn’t want to see Neil’s corpse. Or what’s left of it. 

An hours or so later, and Billy starts breathing quicker. He moans, wrinkles his brow and whimpers. He mutters something, and Max can just make out the words _‘Dad’_ , _‘no, stop’_ and _‘please’_. Max tries to shush him, tries to soothe him back to sleep by carding through his curls, but it doesn’t help. When he starts crying, she pulls the bandage back down and sees the wounds looking worse, the black having extended since last she looked. 

Billy might be dead when Max gets back, a demodog having rushed in and attacked him, but if Max doesn’t leave and try to get help, she’s certain he’s definitely going to die before help finds them. 

She pushes his backpack back under his head, and doubting he’s likely to gain consciousness, Max takes both the axe and bat with her, one in each arm. But she leaves the water bottle beside him. 

Her backpack slung over her shoulders, Max runs out of the cave, and starts walking up the hill. She doesn’t turn towards camp, instead walking so she’s on top of the roof of the cave, and treads carefully as she walks.

She waits until she can see the hole they fell through before letting the axe and bat fall to the ground, and taking off her backpack to get out the walkie. 

“Guys? Guys, hello? Mad Max calling. SOS guys, please, please answer!” 

And amazingly, it crackles to life. Max almost feels like crying when she hears Lucas voice crackle through it. 

_ “Max? Come.”  _

“I need you guys to get here. We’re- Billy’s hurt, and he’s not waking up, and there’s demodogs running around, and I think my mum took the car and I don’t know what to do, and Neil’s- Neil’s-“ There’s silence on the other end, for so long Max worries she’s lost connection again. “Lucas! Lucas, can you hear me?! Lucas! Come!” 

_ “Sorry, sorry, yeah, I’m here. You’re mum called Hop. We’re on our way to you. She wrote your campsite down on a map. Where are you? Come.” _

Max could sob with relief. “If you go straight ahead from the tents, you should get to a hill, and if you go down it there’s a cave. We’re in there. But- Neil’s dead, Lucas. A demodog got him, back at camp. And another bit Billy, or scratched him, I don’t know, but I need you to call a doctor or something, because he needs help, and-“ 

_ “Wait, wait, slow down. Who’s dead? Come.”  _

“My stepdad,” Max whispers, and hopes he hears her. 

_“Shit. I’m sorry. Come.”_

Max laughs, but it’s weak and wet sounding. “I’m not.” 

The sound cuts of again, and Max sighs and stuffs it back in her bag. She can’t tell if she hopes Lucas didn’t hear that last bit or not. 

For a moment, she considers jumping down through the hole, but decides against it. She doesn’t need a broken leg on top of everything else. Instead, she swings her backpack back on, grabs both her weapons, and takes off running. 

Billy’s in the same position she’d left him in. He seems to have settled down a little, bit otherwise his condition remains unchanged. Satisfied in her knowledge that helps on its way, Max drinks a half of what’s left of the water, dripping the rest of it into Billy’s mouth in small gulps, holding his head up so he doesn’t choke.

She lowers his head back down into her lap afterwards, and goes back to stroking his hair. 

A little while later, she hears Hopper’s voice call out. “Max?” 

“We’re here!” Max shouts back. She reaches for her flashlight and shines it towards the end of the cave he’s coming through. There’s a smaller pair of feet, running ahead of him, and El emerges, brown curls bouncing on her head. 

“Max!” she shouts, and skids to a halt in front of her. Her eyes widen when they land on Max, and then Billy. Max doesn’t think she wants to know what she looks like. El turns her head back the way she came. “Jim! Hurry!” 

“Jesus Christ, kid,” Hopper says as he emerges a second later. Max switches the light off. She thinks he might be the best sight she’s ever seen. 

His eyes move between the axe with its dried blood by Max’ feet, towards Billy in her lap, and he crouches down beside them. 

“You said he got bitten? By a demodog?” he asks, concern marring his face. He looks down at the bandage around Billy’s upper arm, and the sling she’d made him. 

“And he thinks his arm’s broken, from when we fell.”

Hopper glances back up at her. “‘Fell’?”

Max points towards the hole, up behind El. “Through there.” 

Hopper turns around and looks back. “Shit.” He turns to her. “You hurt?”

“I’m fine,” Max whispers. “But Billy...” She reaches down, pulls the bandages off to show him the wound. Hopper recoils slightly. 

“I radioed Dr. Owens. He’s going to meet us at the hospital, and... he’ll send his men, to take care of Neil.” He grimaces, abs meets her gaze. “I’m going to take Billy, okay?” 

Max nods, and helps him prop up Billy’s head against his shoulder as he puts one arm underneath his legs, the other behind his back, and lifts. Billy doesn’t react, and the worries forming a tight ball on Max’ stomach. 

El comes up, takes his backpack and puts it on, her hand grabbing hold of the axe. Max takes the bat, and her flashlight, and takes the lead out of the cave. 

“The others?” she asks. 

“Are waiting in Steve’s car,” Hopper answers. “They insisted on coming with. We thought we were organising a search party.” 

When they get out, Hopper takes the lead, and Max switches the light of and falls in beside El. El grabs hold of her hand, and holds it all the way back. 

Max notices he’s leading them around the campsite, not straight to it, so Max doesn’t have to go past where she knows Neil’s body lies. She silently thanks him for it. 

The boys are all waiting for them outside the cars, and Max sees Steve send Hopper and apologetic look, before his eyes widen and she’s crowded by her friends, all reaching out to hug her. Even Mike. And Will. 

“You okay?” Lucas asks her, and Max bites her lip and nods. 

“The blood-?” Dustin starts, gesturing at her shirt. 

“A demodog’s. And Billy’s.” 

“On that note,” Hopper says. “I want all of you back in the car. Billy needs a hospital. Max, you two are riding with me and El.” 

The boys hurry back into Steve’s Beamer at Hopper’s stern voice, and Max climbs into the backseat of the Cruiser. Hopper sticks his upper body in from the other side, and Max can see him struggle not to jostle Billy too much as he manoeuvres him into the backseat. Max takes his shoulders and pulls him towards her, until his head’s back in her lap and his feet are both inside the car. 

Max doesn’t speak, the way to the hospital. 

—

Dr. Owens meets them at the entrance with a stretcher, and they wheel Billy away. A nurse takes one look at Max and takes her to get a towel, then leading her to a bathroom with a shower. 

She stays there for a while, the hot spray washing away the grime of the last few days, and Max thinks she cries a little. Afterwards, she changes into some of the clothes still packed into her backpack, and something falls out and hits the floor. Max reaches down, and sees it’s the little skateboard Billy’d made her. She holds it close to her chest for a couple seconds before stuffing it back inside and stepping out. She finds everyone waiting for her outside. 

She recounts her tale, and at the end of it, Hopper drags a hand over his face. 

“I’m going to ask Owens to lend me some of his men, have them canvass the whole damn forest for the last of the little fuckers. And I’ve got to call your mum, Max.” He gestures at her Steve and her friends. “And you lot will have Steve take you home.” They start to protest, and Max feels her heart warm. Hopper holds up a hand. “Listen, I can’t have you here when Max’ mum comes. How will I explain why you’re here before she is? Or at all, for that matter?” 

“We’re her friends!”

“Yeah, and she’s her mother, who just lost her husband and has her stepson in the hospital. Go home.” 

Steve places his hands on Dustin’s and Mike’s shoulders. “Hopper’s right, guys. Come on. You can see Max tomorrow.” 

They sigh and groan, but pile out of the room in a line following Steve. Like a group of ducklings, Max can’t help but think. El stays back and looks to Hopper, a question in her eyes. 

He ruffles her hair and she grimaces. “You go with them, kiddo. Ask Steve to take you to Joyce. I’ll come and get you once I’m done here.” 

She nods and runs after the others. 

Hopper turns to her, furrowing his brows and looking very uncomfortable. But concerned, all the same. “How you feeling?” 

Max sighs, tries to assess her emotions. “Tired. Worried about Billy.” 

Hopper nods. “Yeah. And- Your stepdad, I know-“ 

“Fuck Neil,” Max says, surprising even herself. 

Hopper raises his eyebrows. 

“I mean... No, yeah, fuck him. Fuck him. Can you... Can you talk to Billy?” 

“Talk to him about what?” 

“Neil. He... I think he feels guilty. Billy told me- He told me Neil’s been hurting him, for years, before my mum even met him, and I just... I didn’t know what to say, when we got back to the cave, after Neil... after he...” she trails of, but Hopper nods. 

“I’m not surprised,” he says. “A kid like Billy... yeah. I’m not surprised. I’ll try talking to him, okay?” 

“Thank you.” 

—

Her mum shows up half an hour later, holding on to Max as Hopper tells her some bullshit story about animal attacks, offering his condolences, and she cries and calls Max brave. Max can’t bring herself to cry again. She’s all cried out. 

Susan disappears a little while later, saying she’s going to go find them something to eat, and while she’s gone Dr. Owens comes out. 

He tells them Billy’s stable, and will make a full recovery. They’ve got him on antibiotics to treat the infection, but since the demodogs hate heat, his fever probably saved him from further complications. When Max asks, he smiles and takes her to Billy’s room. 

“Hi,” Max says as the door closes behind her. 

Billy’s pale, but he doesn’t look as close to death as he’d done last Max had seen him. He smiles at her. “Hey, shitbird.” 

Max rolls her eyes, and drags a chair from the corner of the room up to his bedside. His lower arm’s in a cast, his upper one bandaged. “You okay?” she asks, softer then she really means to. 

Billy looks away, up at the ceiling. “My dad’s dead.” 

“He can’t hurt you anymore.” 

Billy laughs, and it quickly turns into crying. Max motions are him to scoot to the side, and climbs up beside him. She sits there, and hugs him. 

—

Susan doesn’t make him go to the funeral. When people, mostly Neil’s work friends, ask, she tells them he’s still recovering. Max kind of wants to shout that he’d been a shitty dad and doesn’t deserve Billy there, but when her mum saw the anger in her eyes she’d just held her hand and shook her head a little. 

He goes back with Max though, a couple days later. 

He kicks at the dirt in front of them, narrowly avoiding hitting one of the flowers, gently fluttering in the evening breeze. 

“Never thought this day would come. I always assumed he’d put me in the ground before I got the chance to see him there.” He scoffs. “Thought we’d see each other in Hell.” 

“You’re not going to Hell,” Max says. She’s got her hands stuffed in the pockets of her jeans, watching him. 

Billy glances at her, smiling a little. “Thanks, shitbird.” 

He turns back to the gravestone, and Max tries to figure out what he’s thinking. If he’s relieved, or sad, in some weird, absurd way. She doesn’t ask. 

“If I die, I want you to take me back to California. Don’t let them bury me here, Max.” 

She swallows. “You’re not going to die here. You’re going to go to college, and you’ll move away, and-“ 

“And you’ll still be my irritating little sister.” He turns back to her. “You wanna go home?” 

“You going to let me drive?” 

He scoffs. “Fuck no. You’ll crash her.” 

“I’ve already driven once,” Max reminds him. “And you’re a danger with two working arms. With only one, you’re a complete hazard.” 

“Hopper’ll arrest me in if he sees you driving.” 

“He’ll arrest you anyway-“ 

Billy reaches out, flicks her shoulder. “Shut up, or I won’t take you to get ice cream before dinner.” 

Max laughs, and mimes sipping her mouth shut. Billy huffs a laugh as she runs ahead of him towards the Camaro. 

They get ice cream.

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you guys liked it, please leave a comment or kudos if you did!


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